Tag Archives: drug use

From KIRO: Seattle business owners say they are plagued by issues with homeless people living in RVs parked by their businesses and the city is going after them for trying to do something about it.

KIRO 7 got copies of letters from SDOT to multiple property owners saying the “no-parking” signs posted on their buildings are a “public nuisance.”

“If you can’t laugh at that right now when our city is in an absolute state of crisis,” Ballard property owner Erika Nagy told KIRO 7 on Friday. “And this is the stuff they’re going after, this is the stuff they’re prioritizing.”

Nagy says in the past, it has taken weeks for the city do anything about issues with homeless cars and RVs impacting businesses that lease on her property.

The letters from Seattle DOT came from the Curb Space Management division. They say the property owners must take down the no-parking signs on their building because part of the area where people park is in the city’s right-of-way. The letter cites Seattle Municipal Code, Sections 11.50.520, 11.50.540 and 11.50.560, which say they signs are a “public nuisance.”

Ari Hoffman said he put up the signs at properties he owns in SODO because of trash and crime that come with the RVs, including one that parked there Wednesday.

“We went over to him and said, ‘Move, you’re not parking here, move,’” Hoffman told KIRO 7. “And he said, ‘I make more money selling drugs than you guys will ever see in a lifetime.’”

The warning from SDOT says if the property owners don’t remove the signs, the city will remove them and charge the property owner for any costs.

The city and Seattle Public Utilities launched the RV Trash Remediation Pilot program in May. KIRO 7 has told you how they’ve done more than 25 cleanups in SODO to clear out RVs and clean up their trash.

Property owners told KIRO 7 on Friday they’re still dealing with issues daily, and both Nagy and Hoffman plan to keep their no-parking signs up.

“You want them down, you come down and cite me,” Hoffman said. “And then we’ll file a class-action lawsuit for everything that’s going on around here. If you want to call this a public nuisance, what do you call the RVs, what do you call the drug-dealing, the prostitution, the damage, the vandalism? But this is a public nuisance, this little sign here?”

Many progressive-run cities on the west coast have a serious homeless crisis. The homeless are free to do drugs in the open (and in shelters), drink on the streets and generally continue their dangerous activities with no consequences. Heck, their bad behaviors are even encouraged by the bureaucrats. See the following posts:

Now the homeless are about to be responsible for a potential health outbreak in the Emerald City, thanks to Seattle Police allowing them to shoot up where ever they want and the bureaucrats keeping the homeless industrial complex alive.

From MyNorthwest.com: A cluster of new HIV infections in North Seattle has health officials worried that it’s unknowingly being spread by homeless addicts.

Eight new cases have been identified among people described as being homeless, heterosexual, and drug users. Public Health said several of the people reported exchanging sex for money or drugs.

Doctors say the cluster is unusual and suggests that HIV could be gaining inroads into the heterosexual population through dirty needles.

“This cluster is unusual and worrying, suggesting that we are seeing an increase in HIV among heterosexuals who inject drugs, and that HIV could be gaining inroads into the heterosexual population through injection drug use,” Dr. Matthew Golden, MD, Director of Public Health’s HIV/STD Program said in a news release. “Changes in drug use patterns, with greater mixing between heroin users and people who inject methamphetamine, may be putting more people at risk for HIV.”

An average of 10 heterosexual people who use injection drugs are diagnosed with the disease in King County each year, according to Public Health. So far, there have already been 19 in 2018.

Public Health says it is alerting healthcare providers and urging them to increase HIV testing and prevention counseling, increasing outreach and testing programs, providing case management for individuals newly-identified with infections, and continuing to assure access to sterile injection equipment and condoms.

“The most effective way to prevent HIV transmission in the community is to identify people with HIV, link them to medical care and ensure that they are treated,” Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County said in a news release. “Medications for HIV suppress the infection, safeguarding the health of infected persons and preventing HIV transmission.”

Public Health says homelessness is a contributing factor for communicable diseases and HIV. The homeless have poor access to health care, have a high prevalence of injection drug use, and face behavioral health challenges.

DCG

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From SF Gate: It’s something many San Franciscans see on a daily basis, outside their homes or offices and during their commutes. For better or for worse, locals are used to walking by crime scenes, have seen open injection drug use, and have witnessed mental health episodes firsthand.
But when a tourist lands at SFO, guidebook in hand, that reality can be shocking.“Is this normal or am I in a ‘bad part of town?’ Just walked past numerous homeless off their faces, screaming and running all over the sidewalk near Twitter HQ and then a murder scene. Wife is scared to leave hotel now,” wrote an Australian Reddit user Wednesday.
That person isn’t alone. On Sunday, another tourist from Canada asked the San Francisco Reddit community, “Why is this city so terrifying?”
“I’d been there for probably less than a day, just wandering around the center, and already seen more than enough poverty and suffering to cause me wanting to leave desperately,” wrote another visitor from London in 2017. “I saw many people talking to themselves, or to things that weren’t there. Even in a Macy’s, and there weren’t any police officers to help them or do anything about it.”
Anyone who has hosted friends or family from out of town may have had to field similar questions.
Just those three Reddit posts garnered more than 650 comments, many of which were helpful suggestions (other neighborhoods to explore, safety tips, and more).But the city’s own visitors’ bureau is struggling to come up with a good explanation for horrified tourists.
“The streets are filthy. There’s trash everywhere. It’s disgusting,” Joe D’Alessandro, president of S.F. Travel told the Chronicle’s Heather Knight in April. “I’ve never seen any other city like this — the homelessness, dirty streets, drug use on the streets, smash-and-grabs.”“You see things on the streets that are just not humane,” Kevin Carroll, executive director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, also told Knight. “People come into hotels saying, ‘What is going on out there?’ They’re just shocked. … People say, ‘I love your city, I love your restaurants, but I’ll never come back.'”
DCG